Hi All, Ron Lee and Ed Light have correctly diagnosed Anthony's IRIDFLAR double-flare prediction phenomenon: as they say in software circles, "it's not a bug, it's a feature!" ;-) Solar array flares from Iridium satellites are slightly more rare than regular flares because most of the time the solar arrays are pointed at the sun. But there are times for each plane of satellites when the solar beta angle (the angle between the satellite orbital plane and the sun vector) is too high for the two-axis gimbal to track the sun. In the more extreme cases, the angle between the solar array normal and the sun is high enough that the specular reflection intersects the earth, and a solar array flare is possible. The vast majority of solar array flares occur within a couple months of the summer solstice (April-August in northern hemisphere, October- February in the southern hemisphere). Cheers, Rob ----------------------------------------------------------------- Unsubscribe from SeeSat-L by sending a message with 'unsubscribe' in the SUBJECT to SeeSat-L-request@lists.satellite.eu.org http://www.satellite.eu.org/seesat/seesatindex.html
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